Pakistan joins list of smartphone exporting countries

Pakistan joins list of smartphone exporting countries

For the first time, Pakistan became an exporter of 4G smartphones by sending a shipment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the tag 'Manufactured in Pakistan'.

According to the Dawn newspaper, the first 5,500 smartphones manufactured by Innovi Telecom were exported to the UAE on Friday.
However, local mobile phone manufacturers have called for an export-friendly policy so that Pakistan can beat its rivals in the Middle East.
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority congratulated the company on this achievement and expressed hope that smartphone exports would further increase in the future.
"This is that the results of concerted efforts to make a mobile device manufacturing environment within the country," the regulator said during a statement.
Innovi Telecom Pvt Ltd was given permission to manufacture mobile phones in April and completed its first export order in four months.
Zeeshan Mian Noor, chief executive of Innovi Telecom, said his main goal was to enter low-cost markets in the Middle East, such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
"We are manufacturing Chinese brands and there is an outsized number of migrant workers within the Gulf countries," he said.
"Wealthy consumers in the Gulf countries prefer the best mobile phones in the world and we should not even try to enter this market," he added.
He said that the public markets of these countries are his first target, and the average citizen of Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan prefers mobile phones up to 100 us dollars.
Minister for IT and Telecommunications Aminul Haq told Dawn that favorable government policies have helped Pakistan to cross the cross-mail milestone from a purely mobile importer to an exporter.
He said that a conducive environment was being provided to the local companies manufacturing mobile devices and smuggling of mobile phones through Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) has been stopped.
The Federal Minister further said that after the production of spare parts for mobile phones next year, local manufacturers will eventually turn to overpriced mobile phones as well.
On the other hand, experienced players in the field said that the government's approach to promoting the export market was slow in view of the changing landscape.
Amirullah Wala, CEO of Transition Techno Electronics and said that the total export of mobile phones from China is one trillion 40 billion dollars but it was only due to the low cost of labor which is now increasing significantly.
He said China is moving towards high-tech and shifting its mobile manufacturing to other countries like India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
He added that labor costs were high in Vietnam and Indonesia and that Chinese businesses were not expanding in India due to growing political tensions.
He said that now Pakistan is that the only player left to compete with Bangladesh but is that the government able to provide us with an equivalent level of facilities.
Amirullah Wala commented that we have proved that investors can meet the target but future export of mobile phone sets depends on government policies.